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| Family group here for Mom's 90th Birthday |
Today is Jan 1, 2014.
Happy New Year! I hope this year brings you all joy and happiness. OK, I haven't written in a long time. My excuses are party planning, work, babysitting and dating. Mom turned 90 on July 14. We had a big party for her in the fellowship hall at First United Methodist Church in August. I was busy planning Mom's
90th Birthday party, then family came into town from all over. Her
party was a great success and a good time was had by all. Out of
towners were Jacki and Larry, Diane, Kelsea, Philip, Romey, Archer and
Beckett, Noel and Sean and the girls (Bailey, Aubree and Airah), Dick Ayraud (next to Mom), Gayle and Bill Kerfoot (standing in back next to Ryan). It was wonderful that my cousin Gayle and Bill could come with Dickie. I had just started dating a man (Gary) and so invited him to the celebrations. He is behind my head in the Hawaiian shirt. Roger Patterson lives in town (black shirt next to Jacki). He is a family friend, having known Diane way back in the ice ages. Standing in the back row are Javier, Niko, Maceo, Nathan, Larry, Bailey, Sean, Paul, Ryan, Gayle, and Bill. Middle row are Jacki, Roger, Gary, Dick, Mom, Diane, Aubree, Noel, Addie and Philip. Front row you see me (Carol), Airah, Romey, Jules, Faye, Kelsea and Archer.
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| Dick Ayraud and Mom |
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| Mom talking to her brother Laurie (95years) in Australia. Also on Skype were Geoff and Annie West (my OZ cousins) |
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| Mom holding little Beckett (Kelsea and Philip's youngest) |
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| Mom, Diane and Elsie Melgaard who Mom and Dad met about 1950 when they ran out of gas in front of their house on New Years Eve in South Phoenix. Elsie is a young 97 year old! |
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| Dorothy Romey (standing who is Larry's Mom) also came into town from Strawberry, AZ |
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| Mom, Kelsea and Beckett |
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| Yours truly playing piano with Romey, Archer and their Dad, Philip, singing |
I will include more pictures from the actual party in a later blog.
So what else have I done in 2013?? Well I've been working part time at Grand Canyon University teaching senior nursing students. I'm a adjunct faculty member and am a clinical instructor for Community Health Nursing. This means that one day a week I go to clinical sites where my students are working with RNs such as schools, health clinics at homeless centers, jails, respite care, outpatient clinics (wound care clinics, occupational health clinics etc) and adult day care clinics around the valley. Then I lead an hour and a half post conference at the end of the clinical day and I grade papers in my spare time at home. It is fun and challenging and grading papers keeps my critical thinking skills sharp (hopefully).
I also babysit both Jules my Granddaughter one day a week and Addison my GrandNiece to give my brother a break on Sunday afternoons. Both girls are a joy, keep me young by playing games and laughing. Mom usually comes over to visit and play when they are here.
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| Addie |
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| Mom with Addie |
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| Jules and I playing in tent |
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| Jules and Rosie |
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| Jules hopping with Sunflower |
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| Cuddle time |
Gary and I have fun together. We both are widowers and so understand how hard it is to loose a spouse. In the link below, we were ice skating in the outside iceskating rink they built in a street in downtown Phoenix each winter. It was also raining off and on that night and so the news crew was there interviewing people about it raining in Phoenix (not unheard of, but rare). They interviewed us as we were resting from trying not to fall down (me that is, Gary is a good ice skater). There is a short ad, then a short on the rain comes up. First Gary is talking then a minute or later I am talking so check out the link and you can see part of my 15 minutes of fame.
Gary and I Ice Skating in Rain in Phoenix
